Apparatus for dispensing beverages such as iced tea or soft drinks have long been known in the art and are commonly utilized in the restaurant and catering fields. Such apparatus generally mix a drink concentrate with water (either tap or spring water for tea, carbonated water for soft drinks) in the proper proportions to provide desirable taste as the drink is dispensed into a glass for consumption.
Up until the present invention, flow control valves for metering the drink concentrate have generally been designed to provide a ratio of between 5:1 to 11:1 water to drink concentrate. These delivery ratios, of course, limit the strength at which the drink concentrate may be prepared.
If it were possible to provide a precision flow control valve capable of accurately metering smaller amounts of drink concentrate while still providing a beverage to suit taste, significant advantages would result. Specifically, it should be appreciated that sources or containers of drink concentrate must be limited in volume to allow easy handling. Accordingly, if the drink concentrate could be made, for example, 25 times stronger the drink concentrate source would last 25 times longer when mixed with water to make drinks of equivalent strength. Accordingly, an operator would spend one 25th the time he presently spends changing out exhausted drink concentrate sources with new sources. This significant time saving frees the operator to perform other tasks that effectively increase the productivity and efficiency of a restaurant operation.